


Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

by AirgiodSLV



Series: 28 Lotrips AUs Challenge [14]
Category: The Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-05-01
Updated: 2006-05-01
Packaged: 2019-07-20 12:40:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16137437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AirgiodSLV/pseuds/AirgiodSLV
Summary: “Thanks,” he said, smiling as the guy’s gestures finally made sense and he stepped in to wait for admission. “Um, hey…” It seemed stupid, but he pointed to himself in the time-honoured tradition of introductions and said, “I’m Elijah.”The man blinked, and then after he repeated it seemed to understand, trying out the word on a German tongue. He mangled it pretty thoroughly, but Elijah just laughed and nodded, and the blond grinned and pointed at himself in return. “Dominic.”





	Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

**Author's Note:**

> AU #14, for [](https://msilverstar.livejournal.com/profile)[msilverstar](https://msilverstar.livejournal.com/). Thanks to [](https://impasto.livejournal.com/profile)[impasto](https://impasto.livejournal.com/) for the idea, and to [](https://ipso--facto.livejournal.com/profile)[ipso__facto](https://ipso--facto.livejournal.com/) for suffering through my language questions. All linguistic mistakes are my own, with apologies to native speakers.

“Sprechen Sie Deutsch?”

Elijah looked up from his rucksack to see a young blond man perched on the bottom bunk of one of the hostel beds, watching him with unnervingly dark and focused eyes.

“Uh, no.” He shrugged apology, feeling a little guilty as he always did for being so limited. “American. English.”

The blond frowned, and then nodded and shrugged a little. No English, then. Elijah had turned back to rooting through his bag when the blond spoke again. He didn’t have a hope of understanding this time, it was all harsh syllables and quick fricatives.

“Uh,” he said again, meaning to apologize and possibly get out of the room before the other man could really get upset at him, but then he saw the brochure being held out towards him, a familiar layout map that matched the one in his rucksack.

“Oh, sure. What are you looking for?” The blond obviously didn’t register a word of what he was saying, but took advantage of Elijah’s interest to pull out a worn paperback travel guide and draw his attention to it by means of rapid tapping against the page.

“Garten.” Elijah’s brow wrinkled, looking at the words printed in a foreign language. The other man paused, tongue caught between his teeth in concentration, and then waved Elijah back for a moment and flipped to a photo-collage of attractions, tracing down the page muttering until he found the one he must have been looking for.

“Garten?” The photo was of a fountain, and thankfully one that Elijah recognized, having seen it while walking through Florence yesterday.

“Yeah, yeah,” he affirmed, nodding enthusiastically in case the blond didn’t understand. “Here, show me the map again. You have to go across the river…” He tried miming a bridge with his hands, and got a blank look in return. “Uh, wait, look here. See the river?”

He tried pointing and miming again, and this time the blond’s eyes lit up and he launched into a spirited spate of German that seemed, by his gestures, to translate as ‘over the river.’ Elijah nodded and pointed the location of the gardens out again, along with the Italian word, “giardino.”

The blond grinned, eyes bright now and not as intimidating as they had been a moment before, and expressed his thanks with a lot of nodding and smiling.

“No problem,” Elijah grinned back, and went back to getting ready for bed.

* * *

He ran into his German roommate again in line for the Duomo the next day, and in a city full of strange faces, it was enough of a perk to his day that he waved on his way past to go get in line.

The man obviously took a second to recognize him, and then once realization set in he waved back and beckoned, greeting him with a cheerful stream of German that Elijah understood none of. The result was Elijah cutting in line in front of at least an hour’s worth of waiting people, because the guy from the hostel seemed determined to repay last night’s favour by giving him a space at his side.

“Thanks,” he said, smiling as the guy’s gestures finally made sense and he stepped in to wait for admission. “Um, hey…” It seemed stupid, but he pointed to himself in the time-honoured tradition of introductions and said, “I’m Elijah.”

The man blinked, and then after he repeated it seemed to understand, trying out the word on a German tongue. He mangled it pretty thoroughly, but Elijah just laughed and nodded, and the blond grinned and pointed at himself in return. “Dominic.”

“Hey, Dominic,” Elijah said warmly, offering his hand. “Pleased to meet you.”

* * *

They got out of the Duomo around 3 PM, and Dominic’s stomach rumbled just as Elijah was thinking that he was starving. “Hey, do you want to go get some lunch?” he asked, rubbing his stomach for clarification. Dominic nodded, and then made a complicated series of gestures and words that seemed to mean ‘where?’

“There’s always pizza,” Elijah said, and Dominic laughed, understanding, and shrugged. They found a restaurant with patio seating and cheap pizza, and agreed with a lot of mutual shrugging to give it a try.

Their hostess asked them how many with her fingers and a rapid patter of Italian, and Dominic said “zwei,” and Elijah said “two,” and they finally both held up two fingers and laughed when she looked at them without understanding.

“Where are you going after this?” Elijah asked when they had both ordered, pointing fingers at the daily special with a shared rueful smile of low-budget traveling. “Where?” he repeated with a shrug for emphasis, and at Dominic’s blank look tried, “Napoli, Roma…?”

“Ah,” Dominic grunted with a smile, and struck a casual, snooty pose with his nose in the air, miming smoking a cigarette. “La France.”

“Really? Hey, that’s cool,” Elijah grinned. “Parlez-vous Francais?”

Dominic laughed, stubbing his imaginary cigarette out on the checkered tablecloth. “Non.”

Elijah laughed with him, shrugging agreement. “Yeah, me either.”

Dominic offered him a high-five across the table, and Elijah slapped his palm with a broad grin. Dominic asked him something in German, pointing and gesturing, and Elijah pointed to himself and asked ‘me?’

Dominic nodded, and Elijah shrugged, biting his thumbnail absently while he thought. “I don’t know, honestly. I have a month, and I’m just starting out. Working north.” He grinned. “Germany, maybe? Deutschland?”

Dominic repeated the word, clearly correcting his pronunciation although Elijah couldn’t tell the difference, and the nodded agreement. “Deutschland,” he said again, and then frowned and patted his pockets as if looking for something.

“What?” Elijah asked, but Dominic just shook his head, coming up with a pencil and jotting something down on a paper napkin.

“Dominic Monaghan,” Elijah read, and there was a street address below, printed neatly in all capitals. Dominic pointed to himself, and Elijah grinned, nodding. “Hey, thanks. Thanks, man. Berlin, huh?”

Dominic nodded and babbled something, probably about the beauty of Germany and the wonders of Berlin, and Elijah folded the napkin and put it safely into his bag. “Thanks,” he said again, nodding, “I might,” and Dominic smiled.

* * *

Dominic wasn’t in the room when Elijah got back, but he’d been asleep when Elijah had left in the morning, so maybe he was more of a night owl. Elijah took a shower to get rid of the day’s grime, and when he returned Dominic was stretched out on his claimed bunk, eyes closed with muffled rock music blaring out of his headphones.

Elijah was putting his journal away when Dominic finally noticed him, opening his eyes and asking something in a sleepy voice. Elijah cocked his head, not understanding, and Dominic shook his head, waving him off. Elijah crawled into the bunk next to Dominic’s, fully ready to crash, but Dominic rolled over onto his stomach and said something else, eyes soft, clearly half-asleep.

“Where did I go? The battistero,” Elijah answered, guessing at the questions through growing familiarity with Dominic’s hand gestures. “You? How was the giardino?”

“Gut,” Dominic answered with a grin, and said something else, waving for Elijah to hang on while he dug out a small digital camera and passed it over.

Elijah clicked through the pictures, admiring the landscapes Dominic had captured. Everything was very big, broad…Elijah didn’t see a single close-up shot. The sweeping style was good for the gardens, though, showing the scope of the scenery, the fountains and flowerbeds.

“It’s beautiful,” Elijah said, nodding and passing the camera back. “Thanks.” Dominic nodded and said something, probably about his modest talents as a photographer if the shrug had anything to do with it, or maybe just his lack of enthusiasm for garden scenes.

Elijah was about to respond, although he didn’t know what he was going to say and it wouldn’t matter, Dominic wouldn’t understand him anyway, when the door crashed open and a pair of Japanese girls stopped in the open doorway, chattering and communing with each other before waving to them with an incomprehensible burst of Japanese and shutting the door again.

Elijah looked at Dominic, who looked back, and then they both burst out laughing. “Frauen,” Dominic said with a shake of his head, and then made a kissing face, smacking his lips and fluttering his eyelashes. Elijah laughed harder, shaking his head as well.

Dominic gestured at the now-closed door, brow wrinkled in question, and asked something Elijah didn’t understand. “Frauen?” he repeated, with another pucker-lipped air kiss.

“Oh,” Elijah said, guessing that Dominic was asking him about a girlfriend. “No. Nein,” he said, and Dominic grinned at his attempt. Dominic shrugged and said something else, maybe asking why, and Elijah looked away, cheeks heating slowly. “No reason,” he mumbled, and looked up after a minute or so of silence to see Dominic watching him with that same dark, serious focus he’d showed when they first met.

Dominic asked something else, tilting his head, and Elijah shook his head, unable to determine the question this time. Dominic repeated the question, and then added, “Männer?” which Elijah didn’t really understand but could take a guess at.

“Um,” he said evasively, stalling for time and wondering if he could cover by babbling a lot of nonsense in English until Dominic was dissuaded from further inquiry. “Not really, no, I mean…” He swallowed, reminded himself that Dominic couldn’t understand a word he was saying, and finished weakly, “Not yet.”

Dominic hummed thoughtfully, and Elijah looked up at him, wondering if his expression was as guilty as he felt. Dominic studied him, then flashed a grin and shrugged, commenting expansively in German with more gestures which left Elijah totally lost but feeling a little better that Dominic was still talking to him.

Dominic finished with another air kiss, licked his lips and winked, and Elijah blinked in surprise, wondering if he was actually following. “You…?” he asked with a confused frown, and Dominic’s hand caught the back of his neck, pulling him close and stopping when their lips were still a good six inches apart, miming another kiss.

Elijah wasn’t really sure what was going on, but Dominic’s eyes were still watching him, dark and serious, so he nodded slowly. Dominic smiled faintly, eyes flickering down to Elijah’s lips as he licked them unconsciously, and eased back, hand slipping from Elijah’s neck.

Dominic said something with another shrug, but he was smiling and his eyes were gentle. Elijah didn’t think it was a no, maybe just a…not yet.

“Paris?” he asked softly, cocking his head in question. Dominic looked surprised, but smiled slowly in return, nodding. Elijah smiled back and nodded, feeling slightly giddy and a lot crazy. “Yeah. I think maybe me too.”


End file.
